It was a lover and his lass (As You Like It)

William Shakespeare

Teacher card

Published: 1623, in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Length: 24 lines, 181 words, 1 word in 36 is long
Year band: Reading load: Years 3–4. A guide from word length, not a curriculum level.
Themes: spring
Time: 5–10 min, depending on the activity

The text

It was a lover and his lass,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,That o’er the green cornfield did passIn the spring-time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,These pretty country folks would lie,In the spring-time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,How that a life was but a flower,In the spring-time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.Sweet lovers love the spring.

And therefore take the present time,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,For love is crowned with the prime,In the spring-time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.Sweet lovers love the spring.

William Shakespeare (died 1616), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (1623), lines 18540–18566 of Project Gutenberg ebook #100. Public domain in Australia: the author died before 1955. Copied word for word and checked against the ebook.

What to do with it

One link and one task line for each activity. Send a student the one you want them to do, or print this page and hand it round; each link has a QR code.

Its lines are dealt for the sky in the weather poemsin weatherline · 24 lines · about 5–10 min
Task for students (you can change the sentence before you print; nothing is saved)See where weatherline takes lines from this poem, then read today's poem the sky has chosen.
See where weatherline takes lines from this poem, then read today's poem the sky has chosen.
weatherline.popplepoetry.com/sources#sx-lover

Send the whole hand-out

This page’s link. Students open it, read the text and pick what to do; nothing asks them to sign in.

Link for the whole text

https://popplepoetry.com/find/shakespeare-it-was-a-lover-and-his-lass · popplepoetry.com